Superlaser

A superlaser was a device which merged several separate "super laser beams" into a single exceedingly powerful beam. The largest superlasers ever designed, such as those in the Death Star and Death Star II, were superweapons capable of obliterating an entire planet with one shot at full power. There were also smaller-scale yet still immense superlasers designed for use by and against capital ships; these axial superlasers could destroy even the largest vessels at a single shot—and while they would not destroy a planet, they could nonetheless quickly devastate one's surface. Much more prosaically, compact superlasers were also used in industry; the Geonosians, for example, employed compact superlasers to melt iron ore in their droid factories.

Text and facts from the “Superlaser/Legends” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.